Perth store goes green

Oct 10 2008 by Jenny Wood, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

TO show that every little helps, supermarket giant Tesco has announced it is to give a massive boost to Perth’s green credentials.

Next year, customers at the Tesco’s Crieff Road store will receive Clubcard points for bringing their rubbish, such as cans and bottles, back for recycling.

It may seem like a step back in time to the good old days of swapping empty pop bottles for pennies, but those backing the scheme are full of enthusiasm for the new initiative to reward recyclers.

Speaking at a waste conference in Glasgow this week Richard Lochhead, Scotland’s environment secretary, said: “This week can be considered a genuine landmark in Scotland’s push to become zero waste.”

At nine of its Scottish branches, including the Crieff Road store, Tesco will pioneer the ‘reverse vending’ system from January.

Automated machines will recognise which rubbish is being recycled and reward users for their green efforts.

To make recycling easier, Tesco’s reverse vending machines use spectrometry and photography to identify what an object is made of before assigning it to the relevant bin.

The high-tech unit also shreds and compacts the waste, reducing the number of vehicle journeys required to empty it.

David North, community and government director for Tesco, said: “As a responsible retailer, we are committed to helping our customers adopt green habits.

“They’ve asked us to make recycling easier so this is what our new automated machines are designed to do.”

Rewarding customers for recycling has already produced positive results for the giant retailer.

Since starting its green Clubcard points scheme in August 2006, which rewards customers for reusing carrier bags, Tesco estimates more than two billion bags have been saved and customers are using 40 per cent less carrier bags.